Four members of Riverview Senior High School’s United Nations team received awards for performances during a recent conference at Princeton University.
Lauren Hornsby, Francesca Lio, Jack Harden and Julia Ciorra all played roles as delegates from U.N. committees during the conference, held Nov. 14-17.
Hornsby, a junior, finished in second place for her role as Randy “Duke” Cunningham in the Congress’ 9-11 Joint Commission. Lio, a senior, finished in third place for her role as Kathleen Hawk Sawyer in the Department of Justice’s 9-11 Joint Commission.
Harden, a senior, finished in third place for his role as Imam Musa Al-Sadr in the Lebanese Civil War Committee and Ciorra, a sophomore, finished in third place for her role as Germany in the NATO.
Nine students on the school’s team joined approximately 1,000 delegates from more than 15 countries and six continents, said Kenneth Kubistek, a Riverview Senior High School teacher and Model UN sponsor.
The high school Model UN Conference, staffed by Princeton undergraduates, features four days of debate on topics such as the militarization of the Arctic, ownership of the Suez Canal, Venezuelan political changes and the post 9-11 world, Kubistek said.
“All members of the team played a key role in the discussions in their committees and received positive feedback from the leaders of the conference,” he said.
In all, Riverview’s team has won 16 awards this season. It includes about 40 students in ninth- through twelfth-grade.
The team will attend the University of Pittsburgh’s Model European Union on Dec. 4.
